


Everything Interesting and Beautiful

by writeitininkorinblood



Series: The Most Impossible Boy [1]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Insecurity, Les manages to argue his way into every Jack/Katherine fic I write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 16:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5505527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeitininkorinblood/pseuds/writeitininkorinblood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Guys like him didn’t wind up with girls like her, and Jack was tearing his hair out to try and be good enough for her. Both Davey and Katherine try to talk some sense into him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything Interesting and Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Insecure Jack because reasons. Mother Davey because how could Davey be anything else.  
> Writing the way Newsies talk is really difficult, so you have my apologies for those failings.

“Davey,” whined Jack, uncharacteristically nervous. “’ave you sold your last pape yet? I need your ‘elp.” They were coming to the end of a very long day of selling and Jack had been waiting to ask for Davey’s advice since they’d left the distribution square that morning.

Davey looked Jack up and down, taking in his wrung, white knuckles and the way he was rocking back onto the heels of his feet. Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t his charismatic, energetic friend.

“Give me one second.” Davey pulled out his last five papers and called over Les. “You got any papes left?”

“One,” replied the boy, with a cocky smile he had learnt directly from Jack.

“Can you handle five more?”

Les frowned and bit his lip in thought, mentally calculating. Rolling his eyes, Davey just waited until his brother had finished playing.

“Yeah, I reckon I can manage!” Les swung his bag across his chest, ready to fill it with more papers. Davey grinned and offloaded his last few into the bag, before watching the boy run off. Jack had been right: he was born to the breed.

“Right, I’m done. What is it you need?”

“I… I wanna get somethin’ for Katherine?” Jack sighed, unsure of what he was even doing asking Davey for help with this. But he had to ask someone, and not one of the boys at the lodging house would have had any more of a clue than he did. They weren’t used to buying things.

“What kind of thing?” This wasn’t like Jack. Davey could see that Katherine had changed him, but it usually seemed for the better, this was different.  A whole other world of different.

“That’s the problem. I ain’t sure. But I really like ‘er and I want ‘er to know that.”

Davey guided Jack over to a low wall and sat him down. Nerves and uncertainty weren’t a good look on the union leader, taking away his usual spirited self-confidence.

“Jack, she already knows. You don’t have anything to prove to her. She loves you, any fool could see that, and you don’t need to do anything to authenticate your love for her.”

‘She deserves better.”

“You’re just as good as anyone else, and she chose you for a reason, yeah?”

Jack looked uncomfortable with the idea. Guys like him didn’t wind up with girls like her. She was beautiful, so incredibly beautiful. And smart and independent, and Jack couldn’t help but admire her strength and determination. She wasn’t scared; she didn’t tremble in the face of authority or power. She stood her ground and stayed true to herself. She fought for what she believed in, and fiercely. Jack couldn’t help but contrast that with how good and patient and kind she was with the Newsies. They loved her and he loved her for it. He secretly liked the fact that she had the approval of his entire family. She’d won them over as quickly as she had him. Maybe, just maybe, he’d won her over too. He couldn’t have been imaging the care and joy and… love? he saw in her eyes, could he?

Eventually Jack nodded, slowly. Maybe Davey was right.

  

Davey didn’t mean to tell her. No, that was a lie. He absolutely meant to tell her. He had never seen Jack like that and he knew Katherine would be just as worried as he was. Telling her felt slightly traitorous, but if anyone could properly help Jack out of the storm of negative emotions he was in, it would be Katherine. Davey just had to keep telling himself that he had his best friend’s interest and well-being at heart.

 

“Jack Kelly don’t you dare even think about spending any of your money on me!” Katherine had fire in her eyes and a curve to her fist. This was not quite how Jack had been expecting to be greeted when picking her up from work to walk her home.

“Huh? How did you-” Jack broke off. “Davey. I’m goin’ kill ‘im…” He gritted his teeth and kicked a cloud of dust up from the ground. Katherine softened and took Jack’s hand, pulling him into the mouth of a quiet alley.

“Don’t. I’m glad he told me what he did. And we need to talk. Firstly,” she jabbed Jack’s chest with her finger, none too lightly but ignoring his protestation. “Firstly,” she repeated, “you will not spend any of your money on me, is that clear? I know you don’t have a lot, Jack, and I am absolutely begging you not to waste it on me.”

“It ain’t a waste!” Jack cut in, before being silenced with a glare.

“I’m not done! You need every penny you earn for lodging and food and I would hate it if you spent any on me. Please.”

“Yeah, okay…” Jack could see how much this meant to Katherine, her eyes earnest and begging.

“Thank you.” Katherine breathed a sigh of relief and slipped her arms around Jack’s waist. He gladly obliged when she pulled him closer so she could rest her head on his shoulder. Her breath danced across his neck as she spoke.

“Davey told me you didn’t feel good enough. Jack, don’t you ever feel like that. You’re wonderful, really. I don’t how to explain it to you. I wish you could see what I see. The passion in your eyes when you speak as a union leader, the fondness when you separate two of the younger Newsies from squabbling, the compassion when one of them is hurt. You are so, so important. I feel so lucky to be with you and I’m grateful you saw past my surname. I think it’s normal to feel a little lost and self-conscious. I mean everything is still so new between us. But I need you to promise to tell me or Davey or Crutchie if things get worse than that, yeah?”

Jack sighed, pressing his lips to Katherine’s hair. He didn’t deserve her.

“Yeah, Ace, I promise.”

Katherine kissed his collarbone with a smile and jumped back to take his hand again, ready to continue their walk.

  

It didn’t take long for Jack to work out a way to show Katherine that he loved her. Everything interesting or beautiful had always immediately begun to take shape in his mind as a sketch or a painting for as long as he could remember. When Katherine mentioned tiny things like how much she loved the view of the sun setting behind Brooklyn Bridge, or how enchanting her favourite flower looked in Central Park at daybreak, Jack could immediately see it.

He wasn’t spending money, just like he’d promised. Medda insisted on keeping him stocked in paper, charcoal and paints, as much as he protested against it. But without them he couldn’t do the one thing he loved most, the thing that let him escape, so he was never able to resist clean, crisp paper and a new stick of graphite. Especially not when he realised what they allowed him to give to Katherine.

He gave her what she loved most. Every flower, sunset, building or person she loved most, immortalised on paper for her to have forever. He gave her a perfect world on the page, wishing he could do the same for her in reality. Katherine was amazed and humbled every time she received a new sketch from a bashful Jack. They all went in an album, preserved to look at whenever she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. When she realised the theme of the sketches, she noticed something was missing.

“You’re drawing everything I love,” she confronted him.

“Well, yeah. Kinda.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“You’re impossible.” She stared, wide-eyed and shaking her head in disbelief. Jack summoned back his cocky smirk.

“My girl deserves nothing less.”

“Only one problem though,” Katherine frowned. “You’re drawing what I love most, but you’ve never drawn yourself. Quite a drastic oversight.

“I’m giving you everythin’ you love in a way that you can keep forever. Flowers die. Sunsets end. I’m here beside you forever already.”

“Oh.” Katherine had no other words, but she didn’t really feel like words were enough anymore. She kissed Jack almost reverently, and breathed him in deeply. This boy was something else.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Feedback welcomed and appreciated!


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